American Stout Pass Stout

10.5 lbs Domestic 2-Row
12 oz Bairds Chocolate malt
10 oz. Bairds Black Malt
8 oz Bairds 50/60 L crystal malt
8 oz Caramunich III

.65 oz Simcoe 60 min
1 oz Willamette 15 min
1 oz Willamette Flame out

Wyeast 1056 starter.

I have brewed this many times, and it has received scores from 37 to 42 points in every homebrew competition I have entered. Straddles the Robust Porter/American Stout category. I actually have entered it in both categories and scored well in both.

British specialty malts make a big difference in this beer, I have tried it with American chocolate and black malts, and if ends up too astringent for my taste.

Hmmmm....may have to try this one....I like the name!

Hey I know it's been awhile since you posted this but I'm trying this one, just ordered the grain. Loved your IRA, I've done several versions of it. Have you mashed at diff temps with any different results? Or does this one need or benefit from additional aging? tried any flavor additions or oak? I was planning on trying it straight forward but was just curious.

Glad you have enjoyed the IRA. This stout is mashed at 152 to 154, I use 5.2 ph buffer to keep the brew from being too sharp with all that dark malt. I have played around with hops, and from looking at my notes, Simcoe to bitter, Mt Hood at 15 and Ahtanum at 5 was also very good. I have not done any adjuncts or flavors but Vanilla beans in secondary would be good.

Happy brewin

Thanks for the reply, life got in the way of brewing this but I am today, currently mashing at 153. The only hops I have laying around are chinook cascade and summit though, I was thinking piney could be good with this, so chinook to bitter and summit and cascade at the end, what do you think? I'm psyched to see how it'll come out, the mash smells really good.
edit: finished at 1.060, I've had minor issues with efficiency I was accounting for with additional base malt but I thought it could be my sparge, so I stuck to the recipe and fly sparged with 175F water over the course of an hour, still ended up a little low but I'm sure it'll still be good. I guess my mash cooler loses temp or my crush isn't all that, I just use a once through at the store. I ended up using summit to bitter and chinook at 15, and cascade at flame out. and 2 pks of notty rehydrated. Thinking about 3wks in primary and crashing, what have you done as far as ferment timing? I've had 3 union jacks so I guess I'm oversharing. cheers I'll post how it turns out.

Hey Johnny, thanks for trying the recipe! I get about 82% efficiency on my system (crack my own grain to a pretty fine grist) but 1.060 is in the ballpark. Could end up a bit on the bitter side with lower gravity, but that should mellow with some aging if it does end up a bit out of balance. Probably fine. I am curious to hear how it comes out using your hops and Nottingham. I don't have any strident rules about fermenting, when its done in primary, I let it ride another week to clean up and clear and rack to a keg. I can tell you this beer does improve with a couple months aging-just smooths out any edges it may have.

Cheers, Tim

Hey Timbrewz, thought I'd update as this one came out great almost just as you described yours in the original post. So I bottled on 01/05 today is 01/25. I had one last week and shared a few and everyone loved it, still a little green, I honestly thought it was a little bland, and was going to blame my lower OG. Then I had one last night and it's incredible, the summit/chinook/cascade I used blended with the bitterness of the dark malts well, almost minty, and the notty gave it a nice dry finish, it does have a little extra bitterness but it comes across as espresso ish, and the flavors are complex, I get dark chocolate, cherries, espresso, and almost a minty finish, Im sure it'll get even better too. Thanks again for another great recipe. I'll definitely brew this again.

Great to hear!

Cheers, Tim